RIP Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes passed away on Sunday the 10th of August 2008 at his home in Memphis, Tennessee, aged 65. The man is a legend of soul and funk music. He started off as a session musician playing organ and keyboards in the Stax house band on Otis Redding cuts such as the Otis Blue album (one of the greatest soul albums of the 60s) and “Try A Little Tenderness” (which he also helped arrange). He soon forged a successful writing partnership with David Porter at Stax/Volt, writing hits for the likes of Sam & Dave (Soul Man, Hold On, I’m Coming) and Carla Thomas (B-A-B-Y).

These commercial successes earned him a solo recording contract which allowed him to present his own vision of soul music, and his vision was something unique and original. After his debut, “Isaac Hayes Presents” he really hit his creative stride with “Hot Buttered Soul” in 1969. This was something new and innovative, instead of the dramatic gospel rooted vocals which dominated soul music, was a deep drawling sexy style, often using long spoken word rap intros to set the scene before the track would take off into extended dramatic soul/funk jams, epitomised by his radical and ambitious reinterpretations of standards such as “Walk On By” and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”. The latter clocks in at over 18 mins, the first 8 to 10 mins of which is a spoken word intro with a sparse musical backing, Hayes rapping about love, taking his time setting the scene before it finally breaks into the main song, stirring stuff. The arrangements, Hayes’ vocal style, great backing vocals and an amazing backing band (The Bar-Kays) all contribute to make it one of the great soul/funk albums of the late 60s, early 70s.

2 more albums followed in 1970, “The Isaac Hayes Movement” and “To Be Continued” which continued on in the style he’d pioneered. Then in 1971 he was asked to create the score to “Shaft”. Hayes won an Academy Award for Best Score and the title track, “Theme From Shaft” was a number one hit. “Theme From Shaft” is also notable as one of the major precursors of disco. My personal favourite on the album, though, is “Do Your Thing”, a 20 minute psychedelic funk epic where the Bar-Kays are allowed to run wild.

He quickly followed with another highly ambitious and progressive work, “Black Moses”, once again radically reinterpreting standards such as “Never Can Say Goodbye” in his own inimitable style. After a few more albums he fell out with Stax over Royalties and set up his own Hot Buttered Soul imprint. However, despite the albums “Chocalate Chip” and “Groov-a-Thon” selling well, poor business management meant he was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1976.

For the House heads out there, “Chocolate Chip” is notable for featuring the stunning disco/funk track “I Can’t Turn Around”, which was re-edited by House music pioneer Ron Hardy and then later reinterpreted by Farley Jackmaster Funk on his seminal house track, “Love Can’t Turn Around” in 1986. So he can claim a significant influence in soul, funk, disco, rap and even house?

Although Hayes continued to record he was never able to recapture his successes of the late 60s and early 70s. However, he became famous to a whole new generation in the late 90s as the voice of Chef in the popular cartoon South Park. The character Chef played on the cool sexy persona that Hayes had created in the 70s and offered the local school kids advice via inappropriate sexual metaphors. But he fell out with the show’s creators in 2006 after an episode lampooning Scientology and fruitcake scientologist extraordinaire Tom Cruise. Oh well, he’ll always be Black Moses to me.

He is survived by his wife and 12 children from 4 different marriages.

R.I.P.